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Dessert

Delicious Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with layers of custard between white and dark chocolate batter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Delicious Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cake batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the butter until creamy, then stir in the sugar and beat until light.

  3. Add the milk, flour, and beaten egg whites, mixing well.

  4. Divide the batter into two equal parts.

  5. Grate the chocolate into one half of the batter.

Bake the layers

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans.

  2. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the custard

  1. For the custard, bring the butter and milk to a boil.

  2. Beat the eggs and sugar together in a separate bowl.

  3. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little milk.

  4. Add the dissolved cornstarch to the egg mixture.

  5. Combine the egg mixture with the boiling milk and butter, stirring constantly until thickened.

  6. Flavor with vanilla if desired.

Assemble

  1. Spread custard between layers of the cake, alternating the white and dark layers.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Provide structure and lift to the light cake crumb.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the cake and custard.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it heats, helping the cake rise.
Sweet chocolate
Gives the dark layer its chocolate flavor and color.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as it heats with the milk.

The step that matters

Combine the egg mixture with the boiling milk and butter. Eggs thicken when heated, but they can scramble if added too quickly to hot liquid. Stirring constantly while pouring in the mixture keeps the custard smooth as the cornstarch and egg proteins set.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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